Heart of the Matter
by localsportsteam
Summary: After her adventure, Moana was well respected for her seafaring abilities. When trouble arises on the island again, Atoni feels that he can earn the same respect Moana did by setting out to the sea, only to find the ocean may not be a friend of his. Moana realizes she must help, though she knows inside that she is not only running to help, but also running from her own problems.


While I fully respect the fact that Moana was deliberately designed without a love interest (and really like that part of the movie!) I really enjoy writing romantic dramas, so here we are. Obviously, I have an idea of how the story will go, but if you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to PM me or leave them in the replies! I love hearing from you.

...

 ** _30 years prior_**

 _"Please Tui, let me come"_

 _Tui wasn't chief yet, and he was still very young, but despite the quips of his elders, he knew he wasn't reckless. "Absolutely not, Anewa."_

 _"You and I have both dreamed about going out past that reef – both of us, Tui." Anewa furrowed his brow. "You know I'm a good sailor."_

 _"I know you're a good sailor in the lagoon." Tui scoffed. "That's not very hard."_

 _"You've been out past the reef twice." Anewa pushed Tui's shoulder. "Don't act like you're some big voyaging big shot. You didn't even go by yourself – it was you and an entire fishing group, and you barely went past it. Once was even an accident!"_

 _"Yes, an accident!" Tui turned, grabbing the ropes of the canoe. "Accidents happen all the time, and you're due to have a child any day now. If something happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."_

 _"Nothing will happen, I promise. It's a calm night, and we're both good at sailing. Besides, with all your experience, how could anything happen?"_

 _"No, Anewa." Tui said, less firmly this time._

 _"And what if something happened to you, huh?" Anewa shot back. "You need a second brain, a second set of hands out there. If something were to happen and you were hurt…or worse, and I wasn't there to help…do you think I could live with that? You're my best friend, and you're more than that. You know your father will be stepping down soon, and you'll the chief. You're the only child, and you know as well as I do that no one is as ready or prepared to be chief as you are. Letting you get hurt would hurt the whole island!"_

 _"I'm not going to get hurt." Tui insisted._

 _"Are you sure that nothing will go wrong?" Anewa stressed._

 _"Positive."_

 _"Good. Then there's no reason for me to not come."_

 _Tui huffed, but aqueisqeued. "Fine."_

And Tui would regret saying that for the rest of his life. Beyond the reef lay unforgiving waters, beyond the reef lay the wreck of the canoe they took, and behind the reef held Anewa's wife, who went into labor only minutes after they left.

…

Moana ran the tip of her finger over a bright pink flower and, in a fit of indulgence, plucked it and tucked it behind her ear. It was something she did a lot as a child, and while those times were gone, she still liked how it instantly brought her back to an era of little responsibility and lots of time combing the shoreline; getting to know the beaches and immersing herself in the thrill of learning.

She was twenty-six, and the world of her childhood had opened up into adulthood, but still, she sometimes felt the impulse to return to these easier times, gentler times. It had been ten years since she restored the heart of Te Fiti, and while she could remember every minute and struggle of that adventure, she couldn't seem to remember her childhood slipping away.

"You look very nice." Her father, Tui, smiled and gestured towards the flower.

"Thank you. I always like when these flowers blooms – it's always for only a few weeks of the year."

"Do you know which weeks?"

"Yes. It's the first summer full moon, and three weeks after that."

Tui smiled proudly. "Very good! You know this island so well, better than I did at your age, I would say."

"Oh, well I doubt that." Moana laughed.

"You've been such a good chief, Moana. I can't believe it's already been three years." Tui sighed. "Time really does fly."

"You're telling me!" Moana exclaimed. "It feels like yesterday I was coming back to the island from Te Fiti. I remember everyone pouring down to the beach and we were all hugging and crying and-" Moana cut herself off there. Ten years.

"And we're still so proud of you for doing so." Her father smiled. "There's not a day that goes by where someone doesn't bring that up. You saved the whole island, and probably countless others. You will never know your own impact, but we are sure that it is great."

Moana smiled at her father, and then looked out to sea. It wasn't easy to get Maui, or to learn to sail, or to restore the heart. But it was almost harder to stay on the island. She had been out sailing, but never farther than could be gotten to and back from in a day, because she had obligations on the island.

"How is mother doing today?" she asked.

Sina had contracted a terrible cough shortly after Moana returned, and it placed a lot of strain on her and her father – to both care for Sina, and the island. It had weakened her, more than she wanted to admit, but she would usually still rise early in the mornings, and rest in the afternoons and evenings. Every once in a while, the cough would take a turn for the worse, but nothing too terrible had happened yet.

"She's well!" father said brightly. "She was helping husk the coconuts this morning, and it brought a lot of spirit back to her."

"Good! I'll be by a little later to see her when she's resting – I just have to help someone fix their roof first."

"You know, _she_ worries about _you_." Tui said, a bit of mirth in his voice.

"What for?" Moana said, in honest disbelief. "I don't do anything dangerous! I don't go too far past the island, I almost _never_ cough-"

"It's not so much about your physical health." Father began.

"Then what?"

"She worries that you've spent so much time taking care of the island and its people, that you've neglected to look after yourself."

"How so?"

Father laughed without explaining.

"What?"

"She has an embarrassing little saying for it – it's just"

"Oh, you have to tell me now!" Moana laughed, spinning around. "Does it rhyme?"

"Ughhhh," Tui moaned. "She says…it's been so long since Moana restored the heart of Te Fiti…when will she restore her own?"

Moana laughed. "What does that even mean?"

Tui put his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "It _means_ that she's worried you haven't thought of romance or your own family, and that you've gotten too swept up in taking care of the island."

"It's not that I've never thought of it, father." Moana insisted. "It's just that I am very busy, and it hasn't happened for me yet!"

"It doesn't tend to work that way." Father shrugged. "You have to have your eyes open for love. Even if it's right in front of you, you won't notice it if you don't want to see it. Is there anyone on the island that you've…noticed?"

"I don't want to talk about this!" Moana waved her hands. "I have to fix that roof, besides. I'll see you later, father." She gave him a quick hug and took off.

Tui sighed and shook his head. He hoped his daughter would come around in time, but he knew that these things couldn't be pushed, and couldn't be helped. If she wanted to find love, she would start looking for it. If she didn't, then that was fine as well. As long as Moana was safe and happy, that was all that mattered.

…

Moana was not the only one feeling pressured that day. Atoni never heard his mother explicitly ask when he was going to find a spouse, and he wasn't sure if that was her way of showing kindness, or her way of telling him that she didn't want him to leave. Atoni's mother was a woman who existed primarily inside of her own head. There was only one person on the island that she disliked, and in order to avoid any sort of interaction with him or even the concept of him, she liked to stay inside.

Whenever people needed extra help, she would be there, but while other women seemed to prefer the sunny work of coconut husking or weaving, which could be done socially and outdoors, Atoni's mother, Inia, preferred to be inside helping to seal up cracks in homes, or scrubbing floors. Her son was her greatest taste of the outside world, and he always made sure to tell her about the going-ons of the island.

He was getting older, almost twenty eight now, and every once in a while his mother would bring up how cute the young children were on the island, or how there seemed to be so many running about – some for each family. Atoni knew it was pointless to try to argue with her, because he knew that if he did move on with his life he would at some point have to move out, and it would be much harder to care for her. But if he stayed home and continued caring for her and keeping her connected, then he couldn't possibly hope to have a home and family of his own.

So he remained, not Atoni, but Inia's son.

And he would be representing both his own options and his mother's at the town meeting tonight. Chief Moana was holding one, and while it was not directly shared what the issue to be discussed was, everyone was aware of the island's most pressing problem: overpopulation.

While all the new babies were indeed adorable, families were rapidly growing and it was steadily becoming harder to find both enough space for everyone to live, as well as enough space to grow the food that fed everyone. No one was fully sure what to do, and the topic was far too distressing to casually discuss, but there was great hope that, once again, the great and wonderful Moana would sweep in and save them again.

"I heard there were some issues with the roof?"

Atoni sighed. Yet again, she was here to save the day. Where he had failed, she would succeed. "Yes, thank you for coming out."

"Of course!" Moana said cheerfully. "What's the issue, specifically?"

"The roof is leaking right here." Atoni walked a bit to the left and pointed up. "We put a pot under it when it rains, but I'm not quite small or flexible enough to actually get up there and fix it."

"Good news is, I probably am!" Moana slung a bag across her body that held the needed supplies. "I've done this all the time – I'll have it fixed in twenty minutes, easy."

"So it's not too big of a deal, right? It's not an imposition?"

"Of course not!" Moana insisted heartily. "I love helping out, and I didn't have much to do today – besides the town meeting."

"Yeah," Atoni laughed a little. "Only thing left for you to do today is to save the entire island…again."

Moana forced a laugh. "I suppose you're right." She was glad she was high enough up that Atoni couldn't see her face darken. What if she couldn't do it again? What if all she was was the girl who restored the heart of Te Fiti? Could the best days of her life already be behind her?

 **Review, please!**


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